ENRON:
THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM
Directed
and Written by Alex Gibney
Certificate
15
Reviewed
by Cardinal Cox
DVD of this film available from Amazon.co.uk |
DVD of this
film available from Amazon.com |
Write Dope on Pnuk part 19
Most famous of a string of
financial collapses of the early 21st Century, this has it all.
Political intrigue (implied); creative accounting (in the way
that Charles Dickens was "a bit creative"); strippers (cut
to Philip Glass music); and finally an implosion that has ruined
tens of thousands of the average workers, and at least seen the
bosses getting real gaol terms.tracks.
First, headed by a guy who campaigned hard for deregulation in
the American power industry, they went on to fraudulently turn
losses into profits. They got the banks to go along with the
fantasy and ensured that most journalists toed the line. They
also created artificial power shortages in California to ensure
that prices stayed high (reminding me of a couple of incidents in
London in the summer of 2006, coincidence, surely). This is a
criticism of market capitalism in general.
What was especially good about this documentary was that it
didn't overly simplify, but explained it all clearly. There was
no annoying dramatic reconstructions, rather archive footage and
mysteriously recorded telephone conversations.
It has comedy, drama, sex and one death. Picks at a scab and
shows the tender pink economics underneath.
© All work copyright of Cardinal Cox.